Cluj-Napoca Volunteer Center is searching for 3 volunteers to take part in a one year hospital animation project in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The project has as main objective the personal development of the volunteers, including growth in areas such as communication skills, deeper understanding of the concept of mutual acceptance and tolerance, time management skills, planning and organizing events, team-work related skills , creativity and innovation etc; at the same time at the community level, the project aims at enhancing the healing process of the children hospitalized in the local Children’s hospital by creating an environment that will support that.

What will the volunteers do?

The volunteers will work 4 days a week in the hospital, mostly in the afternoon (from 13-17), in order to prevent their activities from interfering with the medical procedures that usually take place in the first part of the day; the total number of working hours for the volunteer every day is of 6, including the language courses and other type of activities besides working in the hospital; no involvement will be compulsory for the volunteer beyond this limit, any further participation in the activities of the organization being possible only if the volunteer expresses a direct desire for this; the schedule presented below shows an example of how a one-week program would look like; The volunteers will work in 4 different sides of the hospital: pediatric surgery and orthopedics, nephrology (here they will work with children dealing with dialysis) and the Pediatrics Clinic nr. 3 and nr. 1 (working with children that have respiratory problems).

At the beginning of the project the volunteers will be trained in a few introductory notions about clinic animation by the staff of our organization but also by other local volunteers that have been working already in this field. The specific daily activities in the hospital will require the active input of each volunteer since the EVS volunteers will be the main actors in choosing the activities, planning them, preparing all the materials and delivering them to the children (all this will happen with the support offered when needed by the project coordinator but also by local volunteers). The volunteers will not substitute the medical staff or be involved in activities that are similar to the medical attention given by doctors or nurses, but will bring something new to what a hospital offers in Romania, that is a series of educational and artistic activities such as: storytelling, English lessons (using the methods specific to the non-formal education), planning different games according to the level of mobility of the patients.